A typical television (TV) has a plurality of buttons to actuate associated features. One such feature is channel changing actuated by pressing a channel up or a channel down button on, e.g., a TV's remote control or front panel. The user presses the channel up or down button once for each channel up or down, respectively, he desires to view. Every time the user presses the channel up or down buttons, the channel displayed on the TV prior to the press is replaced with the currently selected channel. That is, the TV displays the currently selected channel with each channel up or down button press, no longer displaying previously selected channels.
FIGS. 1A-D are illustrations of a TV 160's display as the user changes selected channels. FIG. 1A is a display of the user's current channel 2 selection. After the user presses the channel up button once, the panel 160 replaces channel 2 with a display of channel 6 (FIG. 1B). After the user presses the channel up button again, the panel 160 replaces channel 6 with a display of channel 8 (FIG. 1C). After the user presses the channel up button yet again, the panel 160 replaces channel 8 with a display of channel 10 (FIG. 1D). And so on. After each channel change, the TV replaces display of the previous channel with a display of the current channel.
During channel surfing, the user scans a series of television channels to find something eye catching or to avoid commercials. It is desirable to channel surf without replacing the television's display of the currently selected channel at every channel change button press.
Accordingly, a need remains for a TV channel change picture-in-picture circuit and method.